Morphing for AI

One thing you always want to get the jump on is facing upcoming brutal truth. So, here we go!

Remember when cloud was new? How everybody was warning you that you’d better be offering cloud to your customers or else somebody else will? You’d better train all your people on the new technology?

Except there was no “new” technology. The technology had simply moved! In fact, cloud was never a “technology sell.” It was a financial sell! You were selling reduced operating cost. More resilience and more extensive infrastructure, but the only enabling technology was server virtualization, and even that wasn’t “new.”

And nobody told you to get ready to kiss server and storage sales goodbye, did they?

Some channel executives and owners saw that handwriting on that wall and got ahead of it. Several fired virtually their entire salesforce replacing them with people who could do a financial sell. Others encouraged their existing team to scale up their financial selling skills.

Here We Are Again

Throughout the channel people are imploring you to get into AI. If you don’t know what they mean by “get into AI” don’t worry, you’re in good company. They don’t know either.

Some are telling you to sell Copilot, lots of Copilot. Others favor ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini or Perplexity or DeepSeek or, heaven forbid, Grok.

When you ask them what you should sell to your customers for they go right into a song and dance about how they’re your “personal assistant.” They can do much of your work for you! Make you more productive! Write your emails for you!

Listen, I’m the first to say that the chat capability of any given LLM has been life changing for me in the research I do constantly. With its access to massive data, speed of access, and ability to evaluate quality, I’ve cut considerable time out of projects. But…

But that’s not what your customers buy from you, is it? Your customers buy business systems from you to run their businesses, and ask you to make sure those systems keep running, wherever the servers and storage are.

Here’s the brutal truth this time! AI isn’t just a technology sell either. It’s an operations sell! Your customers want to automate, streamline, and otherwise improve their operations and are looking to YOU to show them how to do it.

What Does That Look Like?

This time it’s not about financial selling skills, cost analyses, or anything like that. This time its about business operations experience and acumen. Ask yourself:

· Do you know how to run a business well enough to have meaningful conversations with your customers about the processes and procedures that run their business?

· Have you the skills to analyze a workflow and identify opportunities for automation and acceleration? Cost savings too!

· Do your customers look to you for business advice? Or just technology advice?

If your answers to all three questions are “Yes” then congratulations, you’re ready for the next wave of change in the channel. Go get ‘em!

But if you answered no at all, don’t wait for “someday.” Get started right now to learn what you don’t know. Find a good business school. Talk to your boss about business operations. They’re running a business right now! If you’re the boss and you answered no….

Time to Morph

For ages, many MSP salespeople have sought to earn the right to call themselves “Trusted Technology Advisors.” That term has been thrown around perhaps as much as the word “partner.”

But if you’re confident that you’ve earned that right, here’s the bad news. You’re obsolete. Your skills are outdated. If you’re the boss, you may be considering replacing some of your Trusted Technology Advisors. If you’re one of those…

It’s time to morph from Trusted Technology Advisor to Business Technology Advisor or even Business Operations Technology Advisor. Hey, maybe we can coin the term, “BizOps.”

This transition is no joking matter. I’m being totally serious. First we saw the demise of the “boxmovers.” Next we’ll witness the end of trusted technology advisors.

If you’re going to “get into AI” there are several things you need to do, the first and foremost of which is to build your business acumen. Learn systems analysis and design. Learn how complete systems are engineered. There are resources all around you.

Next, choose an LLM to learn on and pay for it. The free level is way too low for you to learn anything that will be valuable to your customers. You may even be able to get your choice of LLM to teach you about business operations! They have access to all the textbooks and other materials.

Here’s something to consider: Identify the people you are confident you can turn to for great advice regarding business operations and how AI can be applied to improve them. One of the first people I turned to is the legendary Amy Babinchak, 20+ time Microsoft MVP and all-around tremendously intelligent person. When I asked her preferred LLM she told me to look at Perplexity. I told her I had heard much less about that than the others. I then subscribed to all of them except Perplexity (and Grok which I will never allow on my machine, like TikTok.)

Then Perplexity released their Comet browser. Talk about life-changing. The lesson here is when somebody you respect tells you something, LISTEN TO THEM!!!

The reality is that all the LLMs are leapfrogging each other with new capabilities so its going to be a moving target for some time to come.

Last thing: Subscribe and get into the habit of reading my AgenticMSP substack.

https://agenticmsp.blog

I’m doing the homework. I’m devouring everything I can find in search of truly knowledgeable people worth listening to, resources who can integrate AI into your customers operational workflows, materials worth reading, podcasts worth listening to, and videos worth watching.

I’ve been doing this for 45 years, so I’ve gotten pretty good at separating the good and worth it from the wastes of time. My goal is to get you to your goal faster.

Disrupt or Be Disrupted

One of my favorite phrases, and one we should all embrace. In this particular case, I’m referring to your career!